The present embodiments relate to a stand with a movable arm and an attachment section provided on the end of the arm for an object to be held by the stand.
Stands are frequently used with a medical imaging apparatus, such as an ultrasound head, and have a movable arm arranged on a vertical pillar on which the imaging apparatus is arranged. The movement capability for the ultrasound head is provided by the movability of the arm and also by a ball-and-socket joint support of the imaging apparatus on the arm. In practice, the imaging apparatus, for example the ultrasound head (the imaging apparatus is to be taken as including larger systems or components, for example, including a frame or the like), is applied and positioned by the doctor on a patient, for example, to record an image of a breast in a mammography. The doctor aligns the ultrasound head depending on the position of the breast in order to position the ultrasound head correctly relative to the breast or relative to a specific point (e.g., the nipple). The doctor records images of the entire desired area under investigation from which, for example, 3D images will subsequently be reconstructed. The ability to move the ultrasound head into a given position depending on the position or the size of the breast is made possible by the movability of the arm and especially the ball-and-socket joint support of the imaging apparatus.
During mammography, the doctor may apply considerable pressure and maintain this pressure on the ultrasound head while recording the images. Considerable pressure is applied to the breast during this process. When an ultrasound image recording apparatus including a stand is used, the patient is lying so that the ultrasound head can be applied and pushed on by the doctor from above and slightly inclined to the side. The doctor may press the ultrasound head during the entire imaging process with considerable pressure against the breast; this requires great effort on the part of the doctor and results in the problem that the ultrasound head moves around the ball-and-socket joint support, either as a result of the breathing movement of the patient or the movement of the doctor. Such a change in the relative position of the ultrasound head to the imaging area has a negative effect on the quality of the images recorded.